Lyn and I have been married for almost 50 years with 3 adult children and 7 grandchildren.
From an early age our family enjoyed camping and 4x4 holidays that took us across some of the most remote tracks in Australia. In 1999 I competed in the first 4x4 Warn ARB Outback Challenge and am the only competitor to have completed consistently for the next 10 years. I have been fortunate to be in the top 10 in most local and international winching and 4x4 driving competitions. In the 2005 Outback Challenge it was first place, 2nd in 2003, 4th in 2006, and 3rd in 2007.
As with the competitions, holidays became more adventurous. In 1999, we lead an expedition across the notorious Madigan’s Line, a 1500Km GPS trip across the Simpson Desert. In 2000 it was a 2250km GPS trip following the Tropic of Capricorn across Australia. Following competing in the Malaysian Rainforest Challenge in 2000, Lyn and I drove from Malaysia, across Thailand, Cambodia and into Vietnam in the competition vehicle.
In June/July 2005 it was a 300Km trip down the Eastern seaboard of the Cape York Peninsular on quad bikes, and in July-September 2006, a crossing of the Great Sandy Desert by GPS to Dragon Tree Soak.
On the “Life List” are two major expeditions – Across the Eurasian Continent from East to West, and from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America.
Following reading the book “The Long Way Round” and viewing the video, we mentioned to good friends Bill & Gayleen Lyne how we would love to do such a trip across Russia and Mongolia. Within one week Bill telephoned and said if we were serious about going, they would love to join us. It was less than 9 months from that conversation that two trucks were loaded into a container bound for Magadan in far North Eastern Russia. Hence our story of Russia and Beyond starting in May 2007.
Since then we travelled from the UK through France and Spain spending 4 weeks in Morocco and returning the vehicle to the UK and eventually home.
During this travelling time the concept of an improved expedition vehicle emerged, and for the next two years that became a reality as EarthCruiser. The choice was, do I continue to be involved in building other peoples escape dream or do we live the dream ourselves. Having only one chance on this planet we chose to see and experience the world now. That is not to say that I am not dreaming of something better!
Following further Quad Bike exploration of Cape York in 2009 our next adventure in 2010 was from Kuala Lumpur across Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, China, Tibet, Mongolia and on the Vladivostok. From here the vehicle was shipped to Long Beach California for 2011 & 2012 drive exploring the North American Continent.
Late 2012 we drove Central America and stored the vehicle in Panama returning in mid 2013 and shipped the vehicle to Colombia. Then spent 3 months driving Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil including the BR319, to Montevideo where our vehicle was stored awaiting our return in 2014.
In the meantime the vision of creating an even better Overland Expedition Vehicle emerged with the creation of the company TravelTrucks Pty Ltd. Based on the remarkable Iveco 4x4, the concept became an instant success.
In 2014 we returned to Montevideo driving across Argentina then following the Andes Mountain range into Bolivia, Peru and returning south through Chile to Santiago.
2015 - Our vehicle is returned to Australia for a rebuild/modernisation in preparation for Africa and Beyond in 2016
Realising that we are not getting younger, I reluctantly sold my interest in TravelTrucks to enable us to see more of this great planet.
2016 It is Africa and Beyond - South Africa, Botswana and Namibia
2017 Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya.
2018 Kenya & Ethiopia and on through Egypt, finally shipping our vehicle to the England for 3 months around the UK
During our African travels we met up with our SuperSingle Wheel agent in Cape Town/Sth Africa. MotorHome World happen to be also great motorhome manufacturers and from that association can a commercial deal for them to build our future expedition vehicle module. A number of family companies were consolidated into - Australian Adventure Vehicles or AAV4x4
2019
